ICT development in the regions

21.02.2011

Infrastructure in Uzbekistan has sufficient potential for development, which means that information technologies should have penetrated the regions a long time ago. What hinders this expansion? It is not that the country lacks optic fibre networks, or that there is too little competition. Rather, the reason for this underachievement lies in the lack of demand. And where there is no demand, can there be supply?

As a landlocked country, Uzbekistan faces serious challenges when it comes to accessing global communication channels. In other words, there are few incentives for investors to enter the Uzbek market, and without these investments there can be no active competition which, in its turn, could trigger the development of a local market for interactive services (such as B2B, G2B, etc.). The IT sector cannot develop dynamically without a developed market where there is healthy demand, and this market should be initiated and supported by the government.